Other Resources for Transparency

Since 2014, policymakers in almost every state have considered laws to ensure the safety of student data, and the US Congress is considering seven bills on student data privacy. At the same time, the Every Student Succeeds (ESSA) Act requires that states adopt evidence-based interventions to improve school performance. The education research to inform these […]

More can and should be done at both the state and federal levels to protect student privacy. Congress should bolster federal baseline student privacy protections and not preempt states from enacting laws that provide additional protections.

Since 2013, one or both of the student data privacy laws passed in Oklahoma and California have shaped bills that were introduced in 35 state legislatures and became law in 14 states. The Oklahoma law, passed in 2013, focuses on actions of staff at the school, district, and state levels. The California law, passed in […]

Over 400 data privacy bills have been introduced in 49 states in the past two years, with over 37 states passing at least one new law. Many of these laws require that state and local education agencies be transparent about their student data and privacy practices, but few states have figured out the best way […]

“Student Data: Trust, Transparency and the Role of Consent” discusses how over the past decade, new technologies in schools have generated an “explosion of data” for public school systems to use and analyze. Accordingly, the Department of Education has identified the use of student data systems to improve education as a top national priority even […]

“Who Is Reading Whom Now: Privacy in Education from Books to MOOCs” discusses how education technologies, while presenting tremendous opportunities to make education more personalized, accountable, collaborative and engaging through social media, gamification and interactive content, also engender privacy concerns arising from the combination of enhanced data collection with highly sensitive information about children and […]